By SCOTT AUST /Greater Garden City
Today is Giving Tuesday in Garden City, the culmination of a two-week MatchDay campaign launched by Western Kansas Community Foundation on Nov. 17 in support of local nonprofits.
The 2025 match pool is $150,000, an increase over past years, and will be divided among participating organizations in proportion to the total amount raised. Fifty-five organizations have qualified for MatchDay, also an increase for the event.
WKCF will match donations between $20 and $2,000. All donations are tax-deductible. Over the past two weeks, donations have been accepted both online and through the mail.
Giving Tuesday is an in-person giving event from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 1106 N. Main, in Garden City.
“By partnering with nonprofit organizations, the community foundation generates urgency around focused giving, expands engagement among nonprofit partners and donors, spurs greater interest in the community as a local resource, and involves hundreds of individuals in the community,” said Conny Bogaard, WKCF’s Executive Director, in a news release kicking off the event.
Community foundations are independent, public entities that steward philanthropic resources from institutional and individual donors to local nonprofits and represent one of the fastest-growing forms of philanthropy.
In the past nine years, WKCF’s MatchDay has greatly increased the visibility and support of the local nonprofits and generated nearly $5 million in support of their work.
As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, a total of $77,347 has been raised.
The 55 MatchDay organizations include:
- ABC Pregnancy Care Center
- Baker Arts Center
- Benincasa Hospitality House
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Finney & Kearny Counties
- Camp Lakeside
- Catholic Charities of Southwest Kansas
- Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation
- Chains Break
- Community Mexican Fiesta of GC
- Emmaus House
- Family Crisis Services
- Finney County 4-H Foundation
- Finney County Historical Society
- Finney County Humane Society
- Finney County Preservation Alliance
- Finney County Public Library
- Finney County United Way
- Friends of Cimarron City Library
- Friends of Lee Richardson Zoo
- Garden City Arts
- Garden City Community College Endowment Association
- Garden City Downtown Vision
- Garden City Family YMCA
- Garden City Rotary Club
- Genesis Family Health
- Gray County Over 50
- Great Plains Christian Radio – KJIL
- Great Plains MakerSpace
- High Plains Public Radio
- Humanities Kansas
- Kansas Children’s Service League
- Kansas Legal Services
- Kansas Oral History Project
- Leave a Legacy Foundation
- Linger Gig Lab
- Little Leaders of GCK
- Magic’s H.O.P.E.
- Miles of Smiles Therapeutic Horsemanship
- Mosaic in Southwest Kansas
- Project Hope
- Real Men Real Leaders
- Red Dog Children’s Museum
- Russell Child Development Center
- Satanta Lions Club
- Shepherd of the Plains
- Special Olympics Kansas
- Spirit of the Plains CASA
- St. Catherine Hospital Development Foundation
- The Community Church
- Tumbleweed Festival
- USD 457 Public Schools Foundation
- Western Kansas Child Advocacy Center
- WKCF Community Development Fund
- WKCF Haskell County Fund
- Women of Purpose
For more information, please visit www.matchday.wkcf.org
